The Fatimids and Their Traditions of Learning.

• Author: POONAWALA, ISMAIL K.
• Position: Review

The Fatimids and Their Traditions of Learning. By HEINZ HALM. London: I. B. TAURIS, in association with the INSTITUTE OF ISMAILI STUDIES, 1997. Pp. xv + 112.

We have here for the first time a comprehensive account of the traditions of learning among the Fatimids, written by a distinguished scholar and an authority in Fatimid/Isma[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]ili studies. The Fatimids came to power on the strength of their powerful organization and propaganda machinery (da[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]wa). Well-knit and highly sophisticated, the da[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]wa's doctrine was refined and perfected by competent scholar-missionaries called da[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]is The central figure of the da[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]i with his learning and versatility, intrigued the author of this monograph and that led him to explore the da[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]i's training, education, and accomplishments. Halm has succeeded in his task of illuminating the many-sided personality of the da[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]i.

The book under review is the second in the Ismaili Heritage Series published by the Institute of Ismaili Studies, under the general editorship of Dr. Farhad Daftary. Paul Walker's Abu Ya[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]qub al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary, published in 1996, was the first. Dr. Daftary deserves all the credit for initiating this series, which aims at making available to a wider audience the results of modern scholarship on the Isma[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]ilis and their rich intellectual and cultural heritage. Since he joined the Institute, Dr. Daftary has infused new life into it. Within twenty years of its establishment the Institute now holds, under one roof, the largest collection of Isma[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]ili manuscripts in Arabic, Persian, and Indian vernaculars. Scholars can, therefore, no longer complain of the inaccessibility of Isma[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]ili sources.

The situation, however, with regard to the availability of the original sources in reliable and critical editions has remained unchanged. The inaccessibility of Isma[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]ili sources in the past was used often as an excuse for disregarding acceptable standards in editing Isma[CHARACTERS NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII]ili texts. Most of the works published by Mustafa Ghalib and...